After several weeks of house hunting (to rent, not buy), we finally decided over the weekend to take a place in Palo Alto. It’s been a fairly tiring process trying to find a place that met all of our requirements: located in a desirable area (nice neighborhood as well as good location from a commuting standpoint), would accept Latte, had an enclosed yard (for Latte), had a garage, and didn’t cost a fortune.

From a location standpoint, Palo Alto is ideal because it is roughly the halfway point between San Carlos and Alviso, our respective work locations. For me, it’s particularly good because living in Palo Alto would allow me to largely bypass the worst of the rush-hour traffic – Palo Alto is a major pinch point on the 101.

Palo Alto also has a plethora of yoga studios nearby (great for Judy) and would also put us closer to some new climbing gyms that we’d like to check out (Planet Granite in Santa Clara and also perhaps Touchtone in San Jose). The Belmont Planet Granite, of which we currently are members, has been deteriorating over the last few months so it will be nice to live closer to some alternative gyms.

We had narrowed our choices down to two places, both of which were in Palo Alto. One was really expensive, but was a good size and had a nice layout. The other one was quite a bit smaller, had some parking issues, and had a tenant above. However, it was nice inside and really inexpensive – saving money’s always a good thing! We had actually settled on the more expensive place, but another couple had submitted their applications half a day before us and therefore had priority if their application was strong. Well, their application turned out to be strong and they decided to take the place.

We therefore had to decide whether we wanted the cheaper place or to continue our search. I was a bit concerned about the size, particularly in trying to fit Judy’s baby grand piano. However, I took a few measurements and after laying things out on the computer, we’re confident that we’ll be able to fit without much problem. As long as we fit and don’t feel cramped, we actually prefer a smaller place because they tend to be cozier.

My other concern with this place was the parking. For a variety of reasons, the parking situation is not ideal, especially since we have three cars between us. After further thought, however, we decided that we’d be able to make it work without too much inconvenience.

After balancing the tradeoffs and taking into account the fact that we had seen few places that we even remotely liked, we decided to take it. We’ll be saving a decent amount of money over our current house in Belmont (even more when gas prices are factored in). Compared to the more expensive house we had initially wanted, we’ll be saving a substantial sum. If things don’t work out, we’ll just move after our one-year lease expires with fatter wallets.

January 07 is our move-in date. While I’m not looking forward to the actual moving process, I am looking forward to getting everything set up and settled in our new place – that’s always kind of fun. And of course I’m looking forward to the much shorter commute.

The big loser in this move will be Latte. There’s no dog door so she won’t be able to stroll in and out of the house as she pleases. More significantly, she’ll no longer have a large yard in which to patrol and romp around. Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. At least that’s what I’ve been trying to tell Latte to prepare her for the move. So far, however, the message doesn’t seem to be sinking in.

Posted by Roger at 10:59 PM.